t is one thing to
recognise the existence of facts which your theory will not explain,
and to admit that it therefore requires modification. It is quite
another thing to explain each set of facts in turn by theories which
contradict each other. That is not to be historical but to be
muddleheaded. Malthus and Smith, as it seemed to Ricardo, had
occasionally given explanations which, when set side by side,
destroyed each other. He was therefore clearly justified in the
attempt to exhibit these logical inconsistencies and to supply a
theory which should be in harmony with itself. He was so far neither
more nor less 'theoretical' than his predecessors, but simply more
impressed by the necessity of having at least a consistent theory.

There was never a time at which logic in such matters was more wanted,
or its importance more completely disregarded. Rash and ignorant
theorists were plunging into intricate problems and propounding
abstract solutions. The enormous taxation made necessary by the war
suggested at every point questions as to the true incidence of the
taxes. Who really gained or suffered by the protection of corn? Were
the landlords, the farmers, or the labourers directly interested?
Could they shift the burthen upon other shoulders or not? What, again,
it was of the highest importance to know, was the true 'incidence' of
tithes, of a land-tax, of the poor-laws, of an income-tax, and of all
the multitudinous indirect taxes from which the national income was
derived? The most varying views were held and eagerly defended. Who
really paid? That question interested everybody, and occupies a large
part of Ricardo's book. The popular answers involved innumerable
inconsistencies, and were supported by arguments which only required
to be confronted in order to be confuted. Ricardo's aim was to
substitute a clear and consistent theory for this tangle of perplexed
sophistry. In that sense his aim was in the highest degree
'practical,' although he left to others the detailed application of
his doctrines to the actual facts of the day.

II. THE DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM

The rent doctrine gives one essential datum. A clear comprehension of
rent is, as he was persuaded, 'of the utmost importance to political
economy.'[303] The importance is that it enables him to separate one
of the primary sources of revenue from the others. It is as though, in
the familiar illustration, we were considering the conditions of
equilibrium of